Halloween: Seeing Ghosts

I'm bumping past the 30's today because I just couldn't let Halloween go by without posting this gorgeous Terrytoon from 1948: Seeing Ghosts! It took the Terrytoon Studios a while to catch up with the business but once they did they were doing some really beautiful stuff. Actually some of the animation may have come from an earlier film: Happy Haunting Grounds (1940). I've never seen it and it doesn't appear on the 'Garage Sale' discs so I don't know. Below however is a piece of a layout drawing (top right) which was published in Nat Falk's book ('How To Make Animated Cartoons', 1940).

While this particular drawing doesn't occur in 'Seeing Ghosts' (that I can see - perhaps I missed it?) fans of 'Lights Out' (Gandy Goose, 1940) and 'Ghost Town' (also Gandy, 1944) will recognize animation reused in the film. Of course the whole thing is based on a Disney cartoon from 1937: Lonesome Ghosts! So, not exactly original territory and Terry sure as hell was gonna get mileage out of the animation, but in spite of that this is a beautifully realized cartoon with a very 1930's style ending! One thing for sure, the cartoon has an unbelievably sumptuous color sense!

Yum. Yum.

Look at those condoms fly!

Shotgun!

Ghost Love.

Is that my name carved on that tombstone! I'm freakin' out, man!

Here's a new wrinkle: a real ghost appears. At least it's real in the sense that it is more faithful to a traditional mythology of ghosts as unaware wandering spirits...

"I ... am shakin' ... mister!"

Moral of the story: A career in House Decoration means eternal torment. Who says cartoons aren't educational!